Bigger boxes, empty space, and wasted plastic.
A small rumour is currently floating around Reddit — and the ever-stinky sewer that is Twitter — regarding the possible case size of physical Nintendo Switch 2 games.
This leak suggests that cartridges for the upcoming Switch 2 will come packaged in plastic cases that are in fact bigger than those of original Switch software.
There are a couple of possible reasons for this change — one being the most obvious: making Switch 2 games stand out when stacked next to those for the original hybrid on store shelves. Another, admittedly optimistic, possibility? Maybe — just maybe — game manuals are making a comeback! (Unlikely, I know, but at least someone out there is trying to fill that void.)
So, if true (and let's be clear, this is very much just a rumour at this point) this bump in case size (to something that looks to be more typical DVD sized) would purely be for visual reasons. Sure, we don't want grandma picking up the wrong game for Christmas on a future visit to Walmart, and this does solve that issue somewhat. But any increase in box size will only further highlight just how ridiculously wasteful these cases are.
When the Nintendo Switch first launched back in March of 2017 I remember excitedly opening up my copy of Breath of the Wild and being a touch bemused at just how much empty space there was in the box. Staring back at me was a tiny little cartridge, barely bigger than my thumb, sat amongst a sea of plastic.
After taking the cartridge out, giving it an obligatory lick, and putting it in my new Switch, I was ready to explore the vast world of Hyrule — quickly forgetting about the baffling design choice of the box that this epic adventure came in.
Since then, I've not really given the size of Switch game cases much thought — and I'd wager you haven't either. But as a new generation rolls round it's as good a time as any to pause and maybe question why these things remain so excessive in size and needlessly big.
The game cartridges for the Nintendo Switch (and likely the Switch 2) aren't much different from those for the Nintendo DS and 3DS. Yet Switch cases are much larger than the already oversized DS and 3DS boxes — it's a baffling bit of continued environmentally unfriendly packaging inflation.
Nintendo have been dragged over the coals before about their green credentials, with Greenpeace criticising the company back in 2010. Other companies aren't much better admittedly, but at least a disc (such as those in physical PS5 and Xbox titles) takes up most of the space found in a box.
SEGA had a go at nudging the industry forward with the 2019 release of Football Manager 2020. The sports game came in a cardboard box, wrapped in recyclable polyethylene, and even the manual inside (yes, it had one!) was printed on recycled paper using vegetable or water-based ink. This move stopped around 50g of plastic being used. A good start, but it's not a trend that's really caught on sadly.
I partly get why — folks who buy physical want their products to last. You only have to look at the old cardboard boxes of NES and Game Boy games to know they often don't stand the test of time — flimsy cardboard won't last like plastic.
If we're sticking with plastic, can we at least shrink down the boxes to be as small as they need to be? Maybe not this small, but can we find a happy medium perhaps?